What is Evidence Based Nutrition
This matters to your health
The issue with untested drugs, herbs and homoeopathic mixtures, is not whether they work, it's more that they haven't been tested if they harm you either.
Information is powerful, more so when it is based on hundreds of carefully designed, unbiased, peer-reviewed trials. Personal opinion and anecdotes should fall short in influencing opinion, they are usually biased and uninformed.
A systematic review and meta-analysis, for instance, may contain data from 100,000 randomly assigned participants, this is far more powerful than a personal opinion based on 1 or 2 examples, even if they are a 'nutritionist'.
An opinion should be based on facts, with moral accountability, rather than: Fake news, Pseudoscience and self-proclaimed experts. Don't waste time, money and hopes on stuff that has not been proven not to do anything and might harm you.
Peer Reviewed Journal
Articles and studies published by experts, and reviewed and updated according to other unbiased experts in that field. Relatively high source of quality and credibility
Randomised Controlled Trial
Participants allocated randomly to a test group or a control (placebo) group, and/or no test group. Results are compared to see the effects
Systematic Review
A very robust source of information when done correctly. It collects, selects and summarises many carefully designed studies into one conclusion
Meta-Analysis
Combines the results of many studies into one paper, giving stronger statistical proof and evidence which is easier to digest. Deals well with contradictory results
TERRY WALKER BSc MSc
eCOOKBOOK
How to Read a Journal
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Head to scholar.google.com
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Search for the terms you are interested in
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Find multiple webpages to the articles (usually just the abstract)
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Sometimes there is an HTML or pdf link to the right. Sometimes you can click 'All x Versions'. And find a full article link.
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Contact NutriBro. and we can likely find you access.
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Read the Abstract. The purpose of the study, the method in which they carried it out. The results they found. And the conclusion.
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p-Values. If the p<0.05, then the result has less than 5% chance of being a fluke. It is therefore statistically significant.
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Effect sizes: How much does the treatment effect people. 0.2 - small, 0.5 - medium, 0.8 - large effect of treatment.
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If you're really really interested, read the Discussion section of the full paper.
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The conclusion will summarise the findings and present the most useful part of the paper for the average reader.
Fact Check Example
"Eating alkaline food changes your body's acidity / pH balance"
Following the procedures outlined by evidence based nutrition, a simple search on scholar.google.com for the following term "Alkaline Diet Acid Body PH Balance" returns the following results.
Dietary changes do not alter blood or systemic body pH.
- Systematic Review... by Fenton & Huang, 2015. British Medical Journal.
Scientific evidence does not support claims that what you eat can cause the body to acidify.
- Milk and Acid Balance... by Fenton & Lyon, 2011. Journal of the American College of Nutrition.
High protein, low carb diets have very little change on blood pH due to renal and respiratory compensation.
- The Alkaline Diet: Is There Evidence...? by Schwalfenberg, 2011. Journal of Environmental and Public Health.
The Alkaline diet with lower protein and higher fruit and vegetable intake could slow chronic kidney disease.
- Reducing Dietary Acid Load... by Passey, 2017. Journal of Renal Nutrition.
From a wide body of peer-reviewed journals and published research, it is then possible to form an opinion on the subject matter. You can therefore ignore fake news, especially around fat loss myths and pursue teh best weight loss program for yourself. All of the best online nutritionist should be following this proceedure. If you use an online nutritionist, it is worth checking their credentials and ability to digest scientific information.